Jon Gruden: Our defense wasn’t good last year, even with Khalil Mack

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 30, 2018, 6:44 PM EST

AP

Raiders coach Jon Gruden has said repeatedly that he wants to get a contract done that will end Khalil Mack‘s holdout and bring the star pass rusher to camp, but Gruden also noted that even with Mack, Oakland’s defense will have plenty of work to do.

Gruden said on NFL Network that the Raiders’ defense wasn’t good enough last year, even with Mack, who is widely regarded as one of the league’s best defensive players.

“We weren’t very good last year on defense with Khalil Mack,” Gruden said. “We didn’t have an interception, I think, all year. I don’t know if we intercepted a pass until Week 14. We’ve got to get a better pass rush, we’ve got to play better defense, period. And we hope Khalil gets here, but in the time being, we’ve got plenty of guys who need work.”

Gruden’s stats weren’t quite right, but he made a valid point: The Raiders’ first interception of the season didn’t come until the 11th game of 2017, and Oakland finished dead last in the NFL, with just five interceptions.

The Raiders’ defense was one of the worst in the NFL last year, and that was with Mack starting all 16 games. Getting Mack in camp isn’t the only thing the Raiders need to do to get better.

The NFL should just close down the Raiders franchise and open a ‘new’ franchise in Vegas with an expansion draft. The raiders blow, and the they fix it just right (like the NHL did) they can take advantage of having a new, good team in Vegas.

I kinda think firing Jack Del Rio was a little dumb. He seems like a guy who has an excellent understanding of personnel development. I think if he was to go coach college, sayyyy the LSU Savages? He’d do very well there.

Always fun to hear Gruden just winging it out there, that’s the attention to detail I came to expect from his game broadcasts. Belichick probably would have gotten that Raiders INT stat right and he coaches a completely different team.

slick50kc says:
July 30, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Same old bottom feeding cellar dwellers. Gruden will actually make them worse, because he’s a terrible head coach.
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So says the man from KC, whose team consistently chokes in the playoffs.

Defense becomes less meaningful the deeper into the playoffs you get. Eventually you will meet TB12. Just gotta have a good enough defense to get you into the post season. Eagles proved you don’t need a defense to to stop Brady to win it all.

Gruden’s seen legit defenses I mean he deserves near Von Miller money. Does he deserve more? NO, no city celebrates all pro awards no matter how many you win, they celebrate championships and Von Miller basically won the Broncos that title 3 years ago on that Denver team that had no QB when Denver was shuffling between Peyton and Brock. Did Khalil help lead Oakland two years ago when they lost Derek Carr????

I give Gruden 3 years and then he will be out of professional football. I’ll be very surprised if any of his teams win more than 6 games in any season, and 5-11 this year is where I see them. Lynch is over the hill, the defense is terrible. Carr is very good but he is not a top 8 QB in the NFL. Raiders had an exceptionally poor draft. They will be a laughing stock in Vegas next year for sure.

Same old bottom feeding cellar dwellers. Gruden will actually make them worse, because he’s a terrible head coach.
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Come on Slick. Mahomes will throw Favre like INTs all year. I smell KC or Denver in last.

Gruden is only there to put butts in the seats in Oakland so MD can continue to fleece the Oakland fanbase. Once the team makes the move to Vegas, Chucky will be gone.

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I agree, this is a P.T. Barnum style publicity stunt by Son-of-Al.

But what Son-of-Al is too dense to realize is that if the team loses a lot under Gruden in Oakland and Gruden continues to decimate the roster then the product will NOT be marketable in Vegas (which has no history of team loyalty) and those PSLs and season tickets won’t be snatched up as he expects. In which case with the debt leverage he’s taken on with this move he may be faced with a cash-flow crisis in which case he’ll probably be forced to sell down the road.

Players are quickly finding out that Gruden the Coach is no the same Gruden the Announcer who is happy go lucky, gushing about every player, never criticizing, and always praising. Most of these players were just toddlers when Gruden last coached.

alleycat702 says:
July 31, 2018 at 12:12 am
slick50kc says:
July 30, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Same old bottom feeding cellar dwellers. Gruden will actually make them worse, because he’s a terrible head coach.
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So says the man from KC, whose team consistently chokes in the playoffs.

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But unlike the Raiders, they do actually make it to the playoffs….right?

Mack is a very good player but he has only had one superstar year (2015). His 2018 contract for $14 million seems to fit his play the last two years.
2014 good player
2015 Defensive MVP candidate
2016 very good player
2017 very good player